10 Most Useful BlackBerry Apps

For years now, BlackBerry devices have essentially served as the Swiss Army knives of the modern workforce, giving users the ability to perform multiple tasks from the comfort of one simple device. The rise of the BlackBerry App World has now given workers even more applications to choose from to help make their work lives simpler and more efficient. In this slideshow, we'll take a look at 10 of the most eye-catching productivity applications that are sure to help out any business professional.

What it does: It gives you the ability to send large files through your BlackBerry by zipping them. It lets you unzip any zip files you receive over e-mail. It also acts as a general file manager to help you organize all files on your device.

Who developed it: Terra Mobility

What it costs: $7.99, although you can try it for free for seven days.

What it does: This is an app for professionals who find themselves besieged every day by unwanted phone calls or text messages. The AlertMatrix gives you the ability to give priority to certain senders based on their telephone numbers or e-mail addresses. This way, your device will only alert you when you have an important message from a client or a family member and will remain dormant for unknown or unwanted messages. Additionally, the app lets you select different noises and ringtones for different people to let you know exactly who is calling.

What it does: While BlackBerry devices generally do a good job of rendering the Internet on small screens, they don't do an especially good job of reading and displaying PDF files. The RepliGo Reader lets you save PDF files to you media card and then display them in "full fidelity" and "without the need for server-side conversion." The app even allows for text search, which will help you skip to the portion of the PDF you most want to read.

What it does: For those of you unfamiliar with the company, BigTinCan is an Australian "call back" voice provider that lets users hook onto its VoIP servers by contacting them through their standard phone networks, thus letting them place long-distance calls for relatively low prices. This particular application gives BigTinCan users the ability to call or SMS users in your directory simply by clicking on their pictures. The app can also sync up with Twitter to provide others with real-time information about people you're calling and messaging, although the company never explains why any sane person would want to do such a thing.

Who developed it: BigTinCan

What it costs: The app is free, although you'll obviously have to pay BigTinCan money every time you make a call using the app.

What it does: One of life's least pleasant activities is talking to your spouse in the grocery store while they read off a list of groceries to buy on your way home from work. With GroceryList, you can instead have your spouse send you a list of items directly to your phone, thus giving you the power to shop in peace and quiet. The app even has a calculator that will provide you with an estimation of your grocery bill based on typical prices of the items you're purchasing.

What it does: This app is basically a more sophisticated way of saying "Talk to the hand." Not only does the app let you ignore callers you don't want to speak with, but it sends them a "friendly" SMS after their call telling them that you're busy. The app also gives you the option of creating your own pre-scripted messages that you can send to different people; this way, you won't send, "b home s00n, honey luv u" to your boss when he tries to reach you.

What it does: The premise is simple enough: it's a one-stop encyclopedia for dates of all kinds, from major multidenominational religious holidays to multinational state holidays to the dates of major sporting events such as the World Cup and the Super Bowl. Never forget to wish your coworkers a happy Ramadan or Arbor Day again!

What it does: A perfect app for people who are either very busy or forgetful, TXTLater allows you to send text messages to people at a set date and time in the future. So, for instance, if you've got a friend's birthday coming up and are worried that you'll forget to send them your best wishes, you can program TXTLater to send them an SMS on their birthday. The app also lets you send e-mails to people in the same manner.

What it does: Simply put, the scanR app's goal is to transform your BlackBerry into a full-fledged scanner. The app promises to let you "convert papers, books, notes and business cards into PDF documents, text files or faxes." The app even lets you send your scanned documents as faxes to friends and coworkers.

Who developed it: scanR

What it costs: $29.99, which includes a one-year subscription to the service

What it does: Whether you're returning to graduate school full time or are simply taking some night classes to boost your career skills, the Student Docket app aims to help you keep track of your busy class schedules, project due dates and scheduled test dates. In other words, the Student Docket will ensure that you'll never have to buy one of those annoying little black planning books every again.